Remote and Async Work

The shift to remote work that accelerated in 2020 was not a temporary disruption. It revealed what knowledge workers had long suspected: most desk jobs do not require a desk in a specific building. For the tentmaker, this was the structural change that made everything easier.

Remote work vs. location independence

Remote work means you are not required to be in a specific office. Location independence means your work is not tied to any geography at all. These overlap but are not the same. A remote employee whose contract specifies "must be located in the US" is remote but not location-independent. The tentmaker wants both.

Pursue remote work first, then work toward location independence as a second step. Many remote roles have geographic constraints that can be renegotiated or removed over time once you have established trust.

Why async matters

Asynchronous work - where communication and collaboration happen on a delay rather than in real time - is the key to genuine flexibility. A fully remote job that requires your attendance on 6 hours of video calls per day is not much more flexible than an office job. Async-first companies give you control over your calendar.

The best async environments have:

• Written communication as the default (Slack, Notion, Linear, email)
• Recorded or summarized meetings rather than mandatory attendance
• Output-based evaluation rather than hours-based evaluation
• Documentation as a cultural norm, not an afterthought
• Explicit trust in employees to manage their own time

How to evaluate a remote role

Not all remote jobs are created equal. Ask these questions before accepting:

• "What does a typical day look like? How many meetings?"
• "What tools do you use for communication and documentation?"
• "What time zones does the team span?"
• "Are there core hours when everyone is expected to be available?"
• "How is performance measured?"
• "Are there geographic restrictions on where employees can be located?"

A company that struggles to answer these questions has probably not thought carefully about remote work. Proceed cautiously.

Red flags

• More than 4 hours of required meetings per day
• "We work hard and play hard" (usually means long hours)
• Monitoring software (tracks keystrokes, takes screenshots, measures screen time)
• Vague performance criteria (makes it easy to be managed out arbitrarily)
• Unstated geographic restrictions discovered only after an offer

Finding remote-first companies

Remote-first companies - those that built their culture around distributed work from the beginning - are generally better remote employers than those who went remote out of necessity. Look for companies where the leadership is itself distributed, where the handbook is public, and where remote work is a selling point in job listings rather than a concession.

Resources: We Work Remotely, Remote.co, Remotive, AngelList Remote, and the Remote First Institute's list of certified remote-first companies.

Thriving in an async environment

Async work rewards clear writing, proactive communication, and structured thinking. Invest in these skills. Write longer messages that anticipate questions. Over-document your decisions. Summarize calls in writing. Make your work visible without being performative.

The tentmaker has an additional reason to thrive here: when your written communication is excellent, your physical absence is much less noticeable. You can be on the other side of the world and still be the most reliable person on the team.

"Let your work speak for itself - then you will not need to speak so much about it."